Protector of Ice
by Sasha Nora
Summary: Eleanor Kane was always friendly to Victor Fries, but when Arkham Asylum is shut down, Eleanor doesn't try to find another job as a doctor- instead, she sticks with Mr. Freeze, knowing that if he found a cure then there would be no reason for him to continue his life of crime. This doesn't turn out in the best of circumstances, especially when Arkham City comes into play.
1. Chapter 1

**First Batman story, so don't criticize me TOO hard. You can still criticize me, though. I own nothing in the world of Batman: Arkham City besides the wonderful Eleanor Kane.**

_**Prologue (At Arkham Asylum)**_

"Freeze!" A voice ordered. Eleanor Kane stopped in her tracks, her hands caught at her sides. "Turn and face me." She turned slowly, scared for her fate, her hands trembling. "Now!"

She whirled, her hands clasped together to keep them still, and looked upon the eyes of the one and only Victor Fries- Mr. Freeze. _The name is still ironical to this day,_ she thought._ Freeze. Fries._

"Doctor Eleanor Kane," he identified.

"I'm not a doctor, Fries," she told him, wondering how she hadn't figured out that it was Fries from the beginning. "At least, not a very good one."

"How is that identifiable?" Mr. Freeze questioned. From the very beginning of them being put together at Arkham Asylum, doctor and patient, the two weren't enemies as other pairs were. They were very friendly- at least, as friendly as they could be.

"What are you doing out of your cell?" Eleanor demanded, purposefully avoiding the question.

"I have been allowed a few minutes out. I decided to do something amusing."

"Scaring doctors is amusing?" Kane sighed. "Why aren't you being supervised?"

"I'm not a child, Eleanor."

"No, but you're a super-villain, Victor." Eleanor yawned, covering her mouth.

"Do I tire you?"

She shook her head. "I haven't got just you to look over, you know?" She yawned again before continuing. "You're the most calming out of all of them.

"Anyway, come with me. I should show you something, now that you're allowed out of your cell." Eleanor turned, walking briskly away, knowing he would follow.

Obediently, Mr. Freeze did as she said and followed her to a lab that was, before their arrival, empty of people. The lab was a light shade of blue, due to the fact that there was ice everywhere. It had numerous tables strewn around with medical and scientific equipment. "What is this?" He asked, looking around.

"My lab," the doctor replied simply. "I've been writing down your ideas for how to make a cure, and have been testing them. So far, though, it hasn't been as successful as I would like. Now that I think about it, all this ice is not the best idea for me. Keep slipping and spilling stuff everywhere."

"Why?" Fries demanded.

"Why what? Why was it not successful? Why is this lab filled with ice? Why do I keep slipping? Why-"

"Why are you doing this for me? I've done nothing in return."

"Would you like to know something, Victor?" Eleanor asked as she walked over to one of the tables. "Life doesn't move how you think. I found your hypotheses for the cure interesting, a good challenge, and..." Eleanor trailed off, deciding not to continue.

"And what?" He asked, turning his gaze from the room to her face, which was turned away from him.

"...Nothing." Eleanor's hands trembled a bit as she tipped some green liquid into another flask.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" Mr. Freeze walked over to Eleanor quickly. Eleanor shivered, realizing she didn't bring her jacket.

"Just cold." Eleanor shook her head, shaking her body a small amount before getting back to work, staring at the notes she took before.

"That won't work," he told Eleanor.

"Too much?" She questioned him.

"Yes." Wordlessly, Eleanor tipped out a little of the green liquid back into the flask- but some of it spilled onto her right hand. Almost immediately, it started hardening- causing Eleanor to scream in fear. "Eleanor!" Fries cried out in alarm, grabbing her hand and inspecting it. "What was the liquid?"

"That!" She said, pointing to a patch of notes on the notepad with her good hand.

"Dammit, that's not what I thought it was- it wasn't supposed to be green, among other things," he cursed, looking over the notes.

"It hurts, Victor, it hurts," Eleanor cried, her legs crumpling to the floor beneath her.

"Eleanor, get up, we need to stop its flow," Victor ordered. Already, though, her forearm started to become grayish, which would then become black, like her hand already was- which Eleanor had noticed through the pain. She injected herself with something the ice man couldn't identify- and it made him cautious. "What are you doing?"

"It stops the flow of everything at a plane," she mumbled as her forearm got blacker and blacker- but the grayness didn't spread to her upper arms. "It seemed to work before and it seems to work now."

"Where did you get it?"

"Made it up. I think I was messing with some chemicals way back when I was young and I made this. Don't know how the heck I did it. Thanks, me, for being old enough to take notes." Eleanor screamed once more before her head bowed down tiredly. A few moments passed, but nothing happened to her arm further.

"It doesn't kill living things," Fries figured out, "it turns them to metal."

Eleanor quickly grabbed a knife from the table- _Why would you need a knife? _Victor wondered- and proceeded to stab the metal arm. She did so multiple times before dropping the knife and getting up. Both Eleanor and Victor inspected it. "Not even a scratch," Eleanor marveled, her pain gone.

"What kind of knife was that?"

"I dunno. I don't care about what kind of knife it is when I buy it." Victor stared at her until she complied grumpily. "Beryllium."

"Where do you get a beryllium knife?"

"Stop asking me these questions, Victor. My arm is stronger than beryllium and you're asking me where I got a knife."

"It begs an interesting answer."

"The answer doesn't matter, and I believe you are probably due back for your cell."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 1: Arkham City**_

It was quiet in the forensic lab of where Joker stationed him- the Steel Mill, perhaps. He hadn't noticed. He walked around briskly, still working on a cure for both the Joker and Nora, thinking about Nora. _I need Nora here... _his mind continued to think as he wandered throughout the room. The calmness suited him, but he didn't like it. _I need Elea (_Pronounced _Ella) too.__  
_

Suddenly, there was a ruckus behind him. "Oh, Mr. Freeze!" the Joker's hysterical voice called through the intercom, then was cut off by a hideous cough. "I've got someone here for you!"

"Get your filthy hands off of me, you fools!" Victor Fries whirled around, recognizing the voice that was coming from the chaos. "If I knew how the hell to operate this damn metal arm you would all be dead by now!" She screamed before the doors in front of Victor opened.

In front of him was his friend Eleanor Kane, beat down to her knees by the ten or so goons surrounding her. She looked up at Victor, her face bruised up and her whole body bloody. "It's not just my blood," Eleanor commented with a sneer at the goons, noticing his stare, before bowing her head. "Though most of it is."

"Unhand her," Victor ordered, and the goons threw her in before retreating, shutting and locking the door behind them. Eleanor coughed out some blood before attempting to stand. At once, Victor was at her side.

"Where have you been?" Victor asked her. Eleanor grabbed a handkerchief before coughing more blood into it.

"Well," her voice squeaked. She cleared her throat before trying again, "I was told to go away after the little incident at Arkham. I found a job here, as a doctor. They told me to take care of the prisoners, and they'll care for me- food, shelter, et cetera. So, I came here. The door was shut behind me, and almost immediately I was surrounded by Joker's goons. I used this metal fist to punch some of them, which is how not all of this blood is mine, but they quickly beat me down and took me to Joker. After a small while, the goons were told to take me to a place I was not aware of at the time, and I tried to fight back again. Yet again, I was beat down, and now I'm here." Eleanor, while telling the story, was wiping away the blood from her face, looking at it with disgust.

"Why did you fight back?" Victor asked, leading her to the bathroom. She shivered before answering,

"I'm not about to be the petty doctor who can't do anything to defend herself. Besides, they would've beat me up anyway, probably." Eleanor had another coughing fit before groaning in disgust. "Ugh, I really shouldn't have come."

Victor felt a pang of sadness, but ignored it as she continued, "So, what are our tasks?"

"Pardon?"

"I was sent here for a reason, was I not?"

"...Yes." Victor turned, walking towards the door since they were in the bathroom. Before closing the door, he told her, "I'll tell you everything once you're better." He closed the door.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY SPARE CLOTHES?" Victor heard Eleanor shout. Victor chuckled before shouting back, "IN THE CLOSET!"

* * *

"So, we're curing Joker and trying to cure Nora, then?" Eleanor mumbled, rubbing a towel through her hair.

"Yes."

"Have you gotten Joker's cure into progress?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"...It is missing something. It breaks down almost immediately."

Eleanor stood, her hand no longer moving the towel. "...Well, we better get to work."


	3. Chapter 3

Eleanor was sitting on a chair, with at least five layers of clothing on, as she experimented to try and make a cure for Nora. Victor knew more about Joker's condition than Eleanor, so she decided to leave that task to him. She heard Victor shuffling about as she watched the concoction in front of her. It did not blow up yet, so, as she shouted to Victor _I might be coming close!_, she tipped a small amount of another chemical, and it blew up in her face, giving off a dark fume. Victor sighed, having his hopes dashed, before he heard Eleanor shriek. Suddenly, everything was silent, which was unusual for Eleanor, and so Victor went to check it out._  
_

Victor walked toward the dark fumes, holding his arms out to see if he could grab Eleanor, but she wasn't there. As he realized this, a bolt of electricity shocked his suit and bodies pounded on top of him. "Eleanor!" He shouted, hoping she was okay, but there was no response from her. Instead, one of the goons on top of him said, "Shut your mouth. You're coming with us."

* * *

"You," Victor heard Penguin's voice order, "take the girlie to the Antarctica Exhibit. You know what to do." Penguin waited till the goons were gone before looking at Victor. "Take his suit off, and then place him in the Hawaii Exhibit." Victor's eyes opened as his suit was being taken off.

"Hey!" He shouted, trying to punch one of the goons, but his suit was already mostly off.

"Take off his little cool-y thing too." Victor immediately felt pain as it started to get a bit warmer. The goons started dragging him somewhere, but he couldn't do anything to stop them.

After a while, he was thrown into a glass encased room with sand in it. He started feeling a bit warmer- but that was before the heat waves started coming in.

Meanwhile, a bit away from where Victor was being held, Eleanor woke to being stripped of her clothes. "Get your filthy hands off of me!" She shrieked, but the goons didn't listen. Two held her down as another took off her layers of clothes, until she was down to a small dress she found in the closet.

"That's enough," one of the goons said. The others shrugged and threw her backwards, making her hit the wall. She began shivering, because it was a bit cold in this glass-encased room, but that was before the AC turned on. "SHIT!" She screamed, getting up and prancing around, rubbing her arms. She pounded on the glass, demanding to get out, but no one listened. She was glad they didn't take off her dress- underneath it were Victor's little cool-y canisters (she wasn't given a name for them and couldn't think of one). She ran around, shivering heavily, but it was futile. She decided to just sit in a corner- after all, a corner was 90 degrees. She chuckled at the joke before placing her head in between her legs, curling up into a ball as she shivered horribly.

* * *

The doors to the chamber hissed open, and Eleanor looked up. Only a few minutes or so had passed- or so she had thought- and she was relieved. She shakily stood up, walking towards her savior, stumbling the whole way. She fell to her knees once she got out of the room, falling on her side as she reveled in the better heat. Her mind started coming back and she suddenly popped up, trying to stand- trying to get to Victor. "Who are you?" A gruff voice asked.

"Doctor- well, kind of a doctor, I've got my degree but not working as a doctor right now- Eleanor Kane. Do you know where Victor is?"

Batman looked the doctor over, trying to see if she was injured and needed help. "No."

He watched the girl stand and start pacing- to get warmer or to think clearer, he didn't know. She mumbled things to herself, before snapping her fingers. "He must be in a heat room, somewhere near here. If they put me in a cold room, since I hate the cold, they must have put him in somewhere very hot- so as to make it unbearable to him." With that, the doctor was off to search for Victor.

* * *

"Mother of- TAKE THIS!" Eleanor punched a goon in the face with her metal hand, her body finally warm, and turned around to get the three other goons who were approaching her. As she planted her fist in another goon's face, one goon disappeared from the mix. Eleanor placed that thought in the back of her mind- it's better that he's gone. Eleanor heard the goon behind her rise, so she whirled on her toes and punched him. The last goon had disappeared too, so there were just two goons who she had to finish dealing with. She punched them both once again, finally making them black out, and took deep breaths, looking around for where Victor was. All around her, there were the small rooms, somewhat identical to where she was, and she scanned all of them. She turned around to see the last one, and saw him. "Victor," she breathed, coming closer. He was standing against the glass, his feet on sand that was most probably very heated. Eleanor looked around, trying to find an entrance to the little room. "This way," Eleanor heard the gruff voice say to her, and she saw a black cape escape behind a door. Eleanor looked back at Victor, who was looking down at her, and she smiled. _"I'll be right there," _she mouthed, and ran after Batman.

She ran past the door, chasing after Batman quickly. She heard some grunting as she ran into view of where Batman was, and found him fighting two goons. A goon heard Eleanor's footsteps and went to deal with her, but Eleanor spun once and swung her metal fist at the goon- he was out shortly due to momentum. Eleanor turned to the Bat, who seemed to have handled his goon, and so she ran for the entrance to get to Victor.

Eleanor ran up to the controls, smashing the button with her metal hand. She cursed before she heard the whoosh of the doors opening and hot air blowing right at her. She stumbled back, waving her hand over her face to blow away the heat, and looked up to see Victor stumbling towards her. "Victor," she mumbled, running toward him to help him down the step. He was hot- hotter than she had ever felt, which was real bad for him. When he got down the step, he fell on top of Eleanor, who fell down with him. Eleanor sat up, placing his head on her lap and grabbing one of his canisters, quickly placing it in its place. Victor breathed shakily while his veins turned a bright blue. "I'm so sorry, Victor, I'm so... so sorry," she apologized, bending over him.

"I need something from your suit, Fries," Batman's voice said. Eleanor looked up at the man, and nodded.

"What do you need?" Eleanor asked him. Victor took her hand hurriedly.

"Eleanor, no," he wheezed. Eleanor looked down at him in confusion. "Penguin took my weapon, and Batman needs my security override to stop him."

"It's okay," Eleanor comforted, brushing Victor's hair with her fingers. "It'll be fine. If all goes well, he'll give it back." Eleanor looked up at Batman. "The security override is a small chip, placed in the glove of Victor's suit." With that, Batman quickly disappeared from their view.

"Dammit Eleanor." Eleanor looked down at Victor again. "There's a reason I should have not told you about my suit."

"Victor, you need to calm yourself," Eleanor ordered quietly. "He would've gotten the information somehow- whether from me, or from you."

"And why would I have told him that information?" Victor demanded.

"I'm not sure, maybe he could threaten you. With my life... or Nora's."


End file.
